Detroit woman testifies she saw officer shoot her granddaughter

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Detroit woman testifies she saw officer shoot her granddaughter
From Associated Press
June 10, 2013, 11:13 a.m.

DETROIT — A Detroit grandmother testified Monday that she could only watch in terror as masked police officers with guns drawn stormed her home in a hunt for a murder suspect that led to the fatal shooting of her 7-year-old granddaughter.

Police officer Joseph Weekley is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the May 2010 death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was asleep on a couch when the police raided the house. Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, said she was lying on her stomach on the floor facing the door when the police officers forced their way inside.

“As soon as they came in, their guns were just pointing right there, and he pulled the trigger,” Mertilla Jones said of Weekley. “I seen the light leave out of her eyes and the blood started gushing out her mouth and she was dead.”

There is no argument that an unintentional shot from Weekley's gun killed Aiyana after police fired a stun grenade and stormed the home. Weekley has said his gun accidentally fired when Jones reached for it. Prosecutors say he was negligent in failing to control his weapon.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-detroit-grandmother-testifies-officer-shot-girl-20130610,0,3812661.story

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On edit, adding photos of Aiyana Stanley-Jones:

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[LiberalFighter]

1. Too many police officers are negligent.

Police chiefs should be held accountable.

[Jenoch]

2. The story describes a situation that did not have to happen in the way that it did.

The cops were told there were children in the home. The cop mishandled his firearm. That being said, I would like to know why that home was targeted for a raid.

[Shrike47]

5. The police were looking for a suspect in a murder. He was found in the home, upstairs.

He was engaged to the victim's aunt. He later pled guilty to a reduced charge.

[whopis01]

9. He lived in the flat upstairs - not the floor the cops went into.

It is a two-story duplex, with separate entrances for the two flats. They weren't even at the right place.

[Jenoch]

10. One good way to

avoid a police raid and the dangers that go with it is to not harbor murder suspects.

[Ed Suspicious]

15. Another apologist for militant brutes who ruin lives.

[Ash_F]

16. One good way to avoid looking like an ass on DU

is to read the facts of a case before hammering on your keyboard.

[Jenoch]

19. You might be right.

I posted with the facts of the story to which the OP linked.

[Ash_F]

20. Fair enough, but that was a pretty callous thing to say AND be wrong about.

A child is dead, through no fault of her own or anyone in her house.

[Jenoch]

23. The story I read did

not report they hit he wrong residence.

I get tired of some people apologizing for
criminals endangering their families, that no longer appear to be he case here.

[Judi Lynn]

21. When I was a child long ago, police in California went through my family's residence

in the middle of the night, and my father was the minister of the church less than a block away.

They suspected we were harboring someone they wanted, too.

We weren't.

We wanted to avoid a police raid but there was nothing whatsoever we could have done to prevent it.

It might do you good to start learning to reign in your racism. You aren't a better man for it, and god knows you don't make the world a better place with it.

[Jenoch]

22. Racism has nothing to do with my

views on crime. I had a high school classmate get raided by the cops. He happened to have deserved it as opposed to the cluster the cops apparently created in this situation. If the murder suspect was in another apartment of the house, I did not see it in the link I read. My classmate was German (at least his surname was) and he was cooking and selling meth. Fortunately, there were no kids in the house. I'm told he went out a window and hid in a bean field.

Last December I had a relative's house get raided by the cops in the middle of the night. It was not a no-knock, but the cops went inside without asking permission. They got the wrong address for a domestic disturbance. It scard everyone in the house including the four daughters. This happned in Lower Merion PA where the median household income is over $100,000 and median home value is over $500k.

[Civilization2]

12. Not only told, there where kids toys in the yard and on the porch!

If you see a picture of the front of the building, it is VERY clear that children lived in the home, big wheels and slides are a dead giveaway,. .

[sorefeet]

3. Cops did the same thing in Billings

they tossed a flash grenade into a house that they had been watching and said it had no children. BULSHIT, the grenade landed on a 7 year old girl and burned the shit out of her.
Never trust a cop.

[Judi Lynn]

24. That's so rotten. It never seems to chasten these creeps, either.

The incidents just keep on mounting, no end in sight.

Billings, yet! Who would ever see that town as a crime capital, anyway? Idiot cops.

[notadmblnd]

4. does the article mention they were filming an episode of a LEO reality series?

I want to say the program was "COPS" but I"m not certain. I think it has quite a bit to do with how the police entered the home.

[whopis01]

8. It was "The First 48". n/t

[Shrike47]

6. If you google the police officer you can find out a lot more about the incident.

[whopis01]

7. Showing off for a TV show

This is outrageous.

The lead SWAT team member - the one who murdered this girl - had been featured on a TV show already and a TV crew was with him again. Using flash-bangs are rarely used for rounding up suspects, but I am sure it added to the drama of the show they were filming.

Too bad they weren't even at the right apartment. Maybe next time they can spend a bit more time getting their plan together and not primping for TV.

[historylovr]

11. Horrible! nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

13. "no argument that an unintentional shot"? UNINTENTIONAL? Did the cop not hit the target that he

was aiming at?

[Ed Suspicious]

14. They don't even act like police, they're like armed invaders. Fuck their "shoot first" mentality!

I hate to say it, but more and more cops are becoming "fucking pigs."

[DreamGypsy]

17. Police Raid that Killed Child Was "Flawed," Says Lawyer; Filming for TV Got Officers "Excited"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20005157-504083.html

DETROIT (CBS/AP) A lawyer for the family of 7-year-old Aiyana Jones, who was shot and killed during a police raid at their Detroit home Sunday morning, believes the police operation was flawed and heavily influenced by camera crews who were filming the raid for A&E's crime show "The First 48," according to a published report.

<snip>

The Assistant Chief of the Detroit Police Ralph Godbee would not comment on newspaper reports that neighbors told police there were children in the house and showed them toys in the front yard before they threw a flash grenade through the window of the house.

Apparently, the 34-year-old murder suspect the Detroit police were searching for shares the home with Charles Jones, Aiyana's father. However, according to Oak Park attorney Karri Mitchell,"There was nothing but innocent people in the home where they put this flash grenade."

Even though a no-knock search warrant allowed police to search both apartments, Mitchell told The Detroit News the police "were excited; they were on TV...They didn't have to throw a grenade through the front window when they knew there were children in there."

"We're not indicating the officer's actions were intentional," Mitchell told The Detroit News. "We know it was an accident, but the method that they used in executing the search warrant was flawed. The family understands that the officer is not a monster. He didn't intentionally shoot a 7-year-old girl."

Joseph Weekley, right, attended a Detroit court hearing in March. At left is A&E producer Allison Howard, who was at the raid for the reality series "The First 48." (David Coates / Associated Press / March 8, 2013)

[Judi Lynn]

25. Thanks for adding the photo. It's very impressive in a larger size.

The look on the producer's face says it all.

[alp227]

18. Wikipedia has links to articles from 2010 w/more detail

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Aiyana_Jones

Also facebook has this memorial page with updates: "She Has A Name: Aiyana Jones"